MVP MVP MVP

The purpose of this season long series was intended to be an opportunity to identify my personal opinion on who was the best thing we had going offensively, defensively and someone who stood out for us that has never reached elite status or even set foot on the game field before yesterday’s game. Now granted we would all like to wipe yesterday from minds but there are less than a handful of things to actually celebrate.

Offensively: True enough there wasn’t that much to celebrate here but there can be little doubt as to who the offensive MVP was. You may mock him or turn your nose up at him but without him yesterday where would we have been without this young man’s steady play. He will not win the Heisman Trophy this year or ever but he did do his best to step up when his team needed him to. The player I am talking about of course is quarterback Damian Williams. Williams completed 20 of 28 passes for 143 yards and a TD while throwing no interceptions (always a PLUS). Damian also had 12 rushes for a net of 93 yards which includes the 3 sacks he suffered or he would have been over the century mark. So Mr. Williams accounts for a net yardage of 236 yards. Not fantastic but he did an adequate job at quarterback for us.

Defensively: I wish there was a room full of candidates here but I can’t find them. A.J. Jefferson had a total of 7 tackles 5 of them solo and 4 tfl’s for -25 yards. Two of his tackles for loss were quarterback sacks for a minus 18 yards. There were others who did make scattered plays but not to the level that A.J. did. When I see him get after people I think back to Gilbert Brown the defensive lineman who played with Green Bay when they won the Super Bowl in 1996. He had this “Grave-Digger” celebration when he had a sack or tfl. I could see AJ doing that but it is unsportsmanlike now........

Rising Star: To me this has to be Leo Lewis who was everywhere making 9 tackles, 4 of them of the solo variety with 2 of those being tfl’s (tackle for loss in case you didn’t know). Unfortunately most of these occurred in the first half. Two true freshmen also made catches in the first half. Jamal Couch (6’4” 223 lbs.) made one nice catch on the only ball thrown to him for 6 yards and Deddrick Thomas (5’9” 188 lbs.) made 2 catches, 1 for his first collegiate TD (congratulations young man).

Hopefully we have a more difficult time selecting MVPs and Rising Stars next week.